Author
Topic: Tauerntreffen,Austria January 2014 (Read 2344 times)

Ok first up i want to point out that it was a post here on ABR Forum which brought the Tauernrally to my attention.I saw a pic of a Tent buried in snow which sparked my interest.Tauernrally is a bike meet in Austria every year in January,bit of camping up on a ski hut about 1500m up in the Alps.The last few miles are only possible with a side car outfit or/and normal bikes with chaines

So after a year of planning and general fluffing about we actually set of last week Tuesday.

My Mate Jason came over the night before from wales and we caught a early Train over to France on our way to Mainz,Germany for our first stop.We met up with AndyB in the Youth hostel,dropped our gear in the room and went into the Altstadt for a mealUs on the Train to France

Next day was only about 300 miles down to Passau which should have been boring but first we had a little traffic jam which i used to show of my filtering skills (5years commuting into London had to come in handy one day).Since i was hooked up to J via intercom all i heard was"Oh that was close,you nearly touched the truck Bojo" and some more drivvel like that.Once we cleared the bit of traffic we resumed normal altitude and cruising speed till i noticed(at 80mph) that J's one panier was bouncing along the floor only held on by a Bungee strap.I screamed into the intercom"Stop,J,Stop now",AndyB was flashing his lights to scared to come closer in case the panier came off completly.How that one Bungee held a fully loaded panier i will never understand.That was all the damage,a bit of scuffed plastic

After we all calmed down a bit we went on to Passau.I was getting worried cause so far we had not seen any snow and i didn't fancy travelling that far to camp in the mud.What i didn't realize when i booked was that there was a brewery next door with a lovely pub and good food

I also made a beginners mistake by fitting new heated grips to my bike before a big ride.Hmm that did smart a bit all the way

With AnyB loosing his baffle he decided to hop onto the Motorway so as not to attract to much attention with the local police while we took a bit of the scenic route.So J and I arrived in Trieben,Austria in the Valley and had some coffee and a bite to eat before we attempted the climb up to the Hut

Pretty place,this Austria

Once we reached the Ski lift it was time for the Snow chains.

AndyB borrowed a chain for his rear tyre,J had some home made snow claws and i managed to pick up some chains from various places.Unfortunatly AndyB did not make it up the Hill and decided to go home.J's snowclaws did one after the other snap right down the middle which meant he was struggling,A LOT.Mine worked perfect but the ride up was still scary as the steepness of the hill and the tight hairpin bends where scaryJ told me to go ahead as he was playing with his snowclaws,which i did

I got gopro footage of the ride up just need to play with it a bit first

A pic of the road

The "Campsite"

and the view on top

So i put up my tent and was waiting for J,asking every bike coming up the hill if they seen a ugly welshman.Eventually i decided to go and rescue him and give him my spare claws and chains

This is the bike of the 17 year old kid with one year riding experience

At night rescue missions where launched at regular intervalls when late comers where stuck on the hill. Ural sidecar units with a driven side wheel where used normally,when they got stuck a snowmobile was used

First night in the tent went ok,at the time i was still thinking it was coolmy Porch area

and our tents on the "Campsite"

Due to J using his clutch a bit too much and all the claws snapping we decided to stay on top and not risk the bikes too much.So we spent most of the time digging our tents out of the snow,the bikes,other bikes,other tents and just general enjoying the scenery

This is the only pic i have which sort of shows the steepness of the hill

Oh did i mentioned it snowed? A lotIt was mentioned we would expect about 40cm in the night,well it was more

I brought all my cooking gear but gave up after the first attempt at a curry nearly killed me with the cold

our kitchen

Did i mention it snowed?

I was not to sure about my bike as my batterie was not the best,J did start his bike twice and had it running for a while but i didnt dare.I thought i wait till departure day and just hope she would start from this

I usually woke up about every 2 hours pushing the snow of my tent which was a bit of a pain.So Sunday arrived and i am not ashamed to admit that i hardly slept and i was shitting myself with fear. The Snow plough got stuck the night before so nobody did know what the track was like

First up was starting the bike.After 4 days/nights in sub zero temp and snowed in like this i was a bit worried

I should never have doubted my "Little Panzer". Key in and the lights came on,press the button and she started.I could have cried with relief

The snow fall was still heavy on the way down which did not make things easier

J's bike started ok too but he had only a chain at the front with the 3 remaining claws at the back.Now J is a Man mountain with legs like tree trunks,several times i watched him stopping the fully packed GSA going down with sheer strenght.Strenght i did not hav

Now if you remember we put the chains on at the ski lift on the way up.Thats on the same spot

I was ok with paddling my bike 5k, down hill,what i did not expect was that the road all the way down into the valley was covered with snow and ice.We ended up doing about 16 km paddling,free wheeling our bikes down the hill.Once back at the petrol station for a coffee and some food we thought we done it.Wrong againThe ride over to Passau was scary to say the least.For some odd reason the Austrians didnt bother too much clearing the motorway.So we ended up doing 30mph on the motorway with the Hazards on. The 120 miles took us 7 1/2 hours of pain

The usual happened when you arrive in a hotel with wet gear

The rest was just a long slog through germany with another stop in mainz and than home

Would i do it again?Not sure first the pain needs to go.One thing is sure never on my gsa again.Even the guys which do the Tauern rally every year said that conditions where unusually hard and that we where nuts coming up the Hill on big bikes without a sidecar.But hey we managed,just